Public Speaking

Public speaking is also called oration, or an act of performing a speech in public. Public speaking was commonly understood before as formal, face-to-face speaking. of a single person to a group of listeners.

However, with the current reality brought about by the pandemic, a person can speak publicly even from the privacy of his/her home in front of a virtual audience. Indeed, speaking through virtual platforms is the most common, if not the only way of communicating these days.

In order to educate yourself further on what public speaking really is, here are its elements.

Basic Elements of Public Speaking

1. Speaker the person who gives the speech. The success of the talk will be based on the preparation, credibility, and knowledge of the speaker about the topic.

2. Message this refers to everything the speaker says about the topic. Speakers should deliver it in a clear way for listeners to understand.

3. Audience the crowd and everyone who gets to hear the speech

4. Channel when a speaker communicates with his audience, he uses many communication channels like nonverbal channel (includes gestures, facial expressions, body movements, physical posture), visual channel (diagrams, drawings, graphics, videos, objects, photographs), and auditory channel (tone of voice, variations in voice volume, tapes, CDs or audio materials)

5. Feedback the process through which the speaker receives a response or information from the audience that has heard the message

6. Interference is anything that affects the speech process. It may be internal or external. The internal includes the relationship between the speaker and the listener (unclear message from the speaker hampering the audience from getting the message) while the external may include what's going on around (noise from the audience, visual interference, poor ventilation, etc.)

7. Place or Situation this refers to the physical setting of the event. The place where a speech is delivered may be one of the most critical elements for the success of the presentation.